How long can groceries stay out

If you forget your groceries in the car, what temperature will they still be okay? How long can groceries stay in the car? The majority of your groceries excluding frozen food would be fine in the car if the temperature is below 40 degrees. Some groceries could become at risk after 1 hour in the car. In the event that you forget to take your groceries out of the car and later remember to bring them in, are they safe to eat?

Boxed and canned goods will be fine. Weather conditions can impact whether or not your refrigerated items are okay. The same is true for frozen foods.

When and what temperature your groceries were at will determine if they are still edible. Your nose is your best guide.

It is incredible how our noses can point out many good or bad things. Gently waft the item under your nose to get a whiff of it. Open the item in question and observe its overall appearance. You know how it should look. If you have canned items, cold items, and frozen items together, you will have different temperatures to contend with. This feature can also be found in Spanish. Skip directly to site content Skip directly to page options Skip directly to A-Z link.

Food Safety. Section Navigation. Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Syndicate. Refrigerate Food Quickly. I grew up in a small farming town in Idaho with a really big family of eight children so once a month my parents would make a pilgrimage to the nearest city and go to Costco and Winco to get groceries for our family for the month.

My parents were geniuses at efficiently getting the groceries inside and put away in no time at all with all of us kids helping out. That was awfully wise of them to put that cooler in the car. It would take them at least a couple of hours to do all that shopping plus the 45 minute drive home. These days, grocery shopping is less and less of a "one and done" activity.

Competition is extra strong right now thanks to discount stores , but finding the best deals often means divvying up your shopping list between two or more places—which saves money, but takes time. But that often means your food spends more time in the car—and in the summer, when temperatures are at record highs in almost every state, that can be more than just an inconvenience. The temperatures inside your car which can rise by nearly 20 degrees every 10 minutes in 70 degree weather, according to data from San Francisco State University can aid the growth of foodborne bacteria and germs on perishable groceries.

How long is too long when it comes to leaving groceries in your car while you shop elsewhere, you might ask? The United States Department of Agriculture advises that raw meat, for example, shouldn't be left outside of your fridge or freezer for more than two hours.